Don Onkens And American Ethanol Make it 4 In A Row...

Don Onkens and Team American Ethanol have done it again for the 4th time in a row at the Lake Of The Ozarks Top Gun Shootout. The Vortech V-30 128A Supercharged 51 foot Mystic Catamaran was piloted to a winning speed of 204mph on the water by Tony Battiato and John Cosker. This is the same 2 man crew that took the Top Gun title last year, Battiato reprising his role, and with Cosker having been in the cockpit all 4 consecutive winning years.

The competition was not exactly smooth sailing for Onkens and crew this year, however. Combating several technical and non-technical issues on Saturday, the team were able to clock in at 189mph on their initial run. This already would have been good enough for the Top Gun Title mind you, as the next fastest boat in the competition clocked in at a still very fast 168mph. However, that was not fast enough for Don Onkens.

Cosker and Battiato were able to ratchet it up to 198 mph on the next run, but they knew there was more to be coaxed out of this quad-engined, quad Vortech Supercharged 9,000 horsepower monster. On their final run of the day, they matched their previous year's record of 204mph on the 3/4 mile course. As a result, the record would stand, tied but not broken, for at least another year.

Congratulations to Don Onkens and Team American Ethanol for making it 4 Years in a row being Lake Of The Ozarks Top Gun Challenge Winner!

Special thanks and photo credit to Justin Pfeifer and Nathan Bechtold from LakeExpo.com.